BS Report: The Bama Game

Go back to 2007. It was Nick Saban’s first year as the head coach at Alabama. Georgia went to Tuscaloosa and won 2623 and overtime to beat the Crimson Tide. The next year, Alabama came to Athens and Georgia had a big, big game. The blackout game. They got embarrassed by Alabama 41 to 30. And since that game, Georgia is only two and ten against Alabama, with their only two wins coming last year in the SEC Championship game, and five years ago in the national championship game in Indianapolis.

There is no question whether it’s Nick Saban or Caleb de Boer, that Alabama has been a little bit of a bugaboo for the Georgia Bulldogs, and they need to get over that hump this Saturday night in Tuscaloosa when they take on the Crimson Tide. Now, of course, these two teams are really good. They played very well so far.

There is a contingent of people who say, well, they haven’t played anybody. Georgia played you know, they played Oklahoma and won easily in Alabama okay. They beat Mississippi State, they beat Kentucky. But is that really a big opponent? So if this is the first big opponent for both teams then there’s going to be a lot to prove on Saturday night.

There’s also no question that going to Tuscaloosa is tough for any team. Going on the road in the SEC is tough for any team, but Tuscaloosa is a tough place to play. Georgia has got to play well. They’ve got to play it clean and sound football game and look, there is no question that you can’t get away from running the ball and stopping the run.

Georgia, of course, would make Frazier. They hope he’ll be back and at full strength. He had two carries the other day in the game against Vanderbilt, but they hope he’ll be 100% and be back to normal. But of course, they have shown with Dwight Phillips and Chauncey Bowen’s Bo Walker that they have a very good running game all together, not just with Nate Frazier.

Alabama’s running game is a little bit different. They are trying to find some running backs, and they’ve got a contingent of very good backs who could do some damage. And of course Keelan Russell, their freshman quarterback, has done very well so far. But he’s not faced a defense like the Georgia Bulldogs. Of course Gunnar Stockton’s a big part of this equation as well.

The Georgia quarterback has been outstanding so far with a very high completion percentage, one of the best in the country. And he’s got to do what every quarterback has to do on the road in the SEC, and that is not make a mistake. So don’t throw an interception. But Gunnar is showing tremendous progress and development here in year two.

And that’s a really good sign as he continues to get more synergy with his pass catchers, like his tight ends and his receivers, who have done very, very well so far. So this is going to be a tremendous football game. It’s a tremendous matchup. I think Georgia’s defense could be the difference because they’re just playing at such a high level right now.

Look they got pushed a little bit in the game against Vanderbilt in the first half. And look what happened. They shut them down. Yes Vanderbilt had a rushing advantage in the first half. But in the second half Georgia just completely shut Vanderbilt down. Which kind of shows you when they flip the switch and have to do what they can do.

So I don’t think we ought to worry about Georgia having any issues with going on the road or facing a big opponent. This is a really good football team. Now. I do not expect perfection this year from the Georgia team. I don’t think that’s realistic in this day of college football, to expect a team to win every single game and to be up for every single game.

But when you look at the matchup of these two teams, I think Georgia has the better roster. They have the experienced quarterback, they have a better run game, and the defense for Georgia just looks really, really good. So this will be a big test. That’ll be a great game. I can’t wait for Saturday at 730 as Georgia takes on Alabama.